Ukraine and SpaceX say they recently collaborated to stop strikes by Russian drones using Starlink and will soon block all unregistered use of Starlink terminals in an attempt to stop Russia’s military from using the satellite broadband network over Ukraine territory.
Ukrainians will soon be required to register their Starlink terminals to get on a whitelist. After that, “only verified and registered terminals will be allowed to operate in the country. All others will be disconnected,” the Ukraine Ministry of Defense said in a press release today.
Ukraine Minister of Defense Mykhailo Fedorov “emphasized that the only technical solution to counter this threat is to introduce a ‘whitelist’ and authorize all terminals,” according to the ministry. “This is a necessary step by the Government to save Ukrainian lives and protect critical energy infrastructure,” Fedorov said.
This is unverified, but there’s been some suggestion that Ukrainian soldiers on the ground didn’t want a whitelist either. With the current security landscape, I sure wouldn’t want an ID with my name on it listed as ‘Approved for use in Ukraine’ to be pwned by hackers.
Especially if I was a highly successful fpv drone squad that the Russians would be very interested in pinpointing.
Beyond that, I expect the issue will be forced now, as strikes deepen in to Russian territory, the only way to allow Ukraine to use starlink within Russian borders is to know who’s friendly or not.